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The Clash steered this ANU undergraduate to a research career in sociology

Avid soccer player and much loved teacher at ANU, Associate Professor Alastair Greig began his academic career as an undergraduate at the same campus a few years ago. “I began as a rather detached undergraduate student here at ANU, believing that my real career lay as a professional footballer. I was fortunate that the illusory nature of this hope coincided with The Clash releasing their album ‘Sandinista’. I became interested in new political movements in Central America and I found that the academic discipline of sociology helped me to make sense of the historical importance of these developments. Suddenly, a switch was turned on, and I began to link my interests to those of many of my lecturers, tutors and other students. I then found ANU to be an ideal learning environment and this face-to-face interaction helped me grow intellectually – which to me means realising that we can never know enough.”